Man attacks women with machete and sword

A man charged with viciously attacking his mother and girlfriend with a sword and machete in Sydney's west has been refused bail.

The two women, 58 and 22, barricaded themselves in a room at a house in Emu Plains after they were hacked almost to death by the man, police say.

Police were called by concerned neighbours to the Lucas Street house just before 1am on Monday to find Clinton Walker, 26, allegedly trying to force entry to the room where the women were hiding.

Walker fled the blood-spattered house but was later arrested in a nearby street while the women were rushed to Westmead Hospital with life-threatening wounds.

"After sustaining significant injuries right across their bodies, they've barricaded themselves with a view that if the male managed to get into that room .. their lives were in real peril," Superintendent Brett McFadden reporters on Monday.

Walker, who was believed to have been on drugs during the incident, was known to police.

"Police have attended the premises in the past for other matters ... Not to anywhere near the same level," Supt McFadden said.